Talk:Winged Elf (3.5e Race)

Hey, I decided to make up this page since I am using a Winged Elf character in a campaign I am in and I did not really like some of the background on the other page. If anyone wants to help out there are a few things you can do.

The best thing to do would be for you to find or create a picture of a Winged Elf and add it to this page. Another great thing would be if you made up a new Clan and added it to the page. If you do please make sure to have a description of it for all sections and thy to keep them about the same length as the others.

I've put some images in. I'm not a fan of CG art for our articles, so these can be considered placeholders. One thing I would change with the text is the mention of "mutate" and "evolve". We know this is how things happen in reality, but it is counter to the language used in the beautiful creation stories we see for mythical creatures. Fantasy is more Lemarkian. Think of some way in which elf X aquired wings: now all her descendents are blessed (or cursed?) with wings. Marasmusine (talk) 02:05, 2 December 2012 (MST)

Right, I've had a look at the traits and I've seen some balance issues:

• Ability score bonuses need to be even numbers.
• A race with flight needs a level adjustment.
• Their flight is not going to be perfect maneuverability. At best, it's going to be "good". See SRD:Fly.
• 1.5 x Dexterity when flying. A movement type shouldn't effect a base ability score. A PC with Dexterity 18 would leap to Dexterity 27 when flying, which is absurd. How about SRD:Air Elemental#Air Mastery instead?
• Agile Strike is an overpowered version of Weapon Finesse. Either drop it, or give them Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.

Hope that helps. Marasmusine (talk) 03:10, 2 December 2012 (MST)

I understand the difference from common Fantasy creation stories and it is one I intend to keep. This way it is both somewhat more realistic, allows them to develop off as a race slower and it allows the 'event' to be something that players or GMs can determine for their own campaign. If it is a more realistic one like mine it can be genetics or evolution and if it is a more high fantasy one then it can be a gift from a god or magic powers.

As for the images I agree that drawn ones are better than CGI. Either way though I am not really sure of these images. The first one is god but the Wings are not right. In the image they are more like insects or pixie wings when they should be more avian or angel like.

As for power I changed the bonuses and lowered it to good maneuverability with perfect only coming at higher levels. I also changed the effects of both Flight Reflex and Agile Strike. Now Flight Reflex gives a small bonus to reflex saves while flying and agile strike is only usable on light weapons.

You also mention addition of a level adjustment. I do not know how to do this so feel free to do it yourself.

Well, that's an artistic choice that I'll have to respect. I've given them LA 2 (+1 for flight, +1 for ability score bonus; this means at level 3 whilst everyone has 3 hit dice, a winged elf will still only have 1. Warning: for comparison, a level 3 human rogue with Constitution 12 will have on average 14 hit points, but a level 3 winged elf rogue with Constitution 8 will only have 5 hit points). I also corrected their subtype and filled in the x0 template. Marasmusine (talk) 05:44, 3 December 2012 (MST)

Thanks for the info. I will make sure to keep that in mind. Me and my friends do not really do hit points in the normal way so it will be good to know if I am playing with other people. Are there any other balance changes needed?

Not that I can spot (although it's been a while since I've played 3.5e). I suggest again that you simply replace Agile Strike with giving Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, there's no point in reinventing the wheel, and it's actually a standard bonus on a lot of creatures (Wererat, Nixie to mention a few humanoid examples). Marasmusine (talk) 13:37, 3 December 2012 (MST)